


Woods problems

by Tabata



Category: Disney - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 17:44:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13839819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata
Summary: Benjamin, Belle an Adam's son, calls a meeting with Mal (Maleficent's son) and a few of their friends to discuss about the spreading disease that is killing the woods in their lands.





	Woods problems

**Author's Note:**

> A few years ago Disney came out with the "Descendants" idea and I was very excited about it. Then, "Descendants" came out and I was disappointd with each and every single character (let alone with how they developed the concept), especially with Mal, since in my head Maleficent would have had a boy. So, as me and Lisachan usually do, we created our own descendants and this is the result.
> 
> Now, me and Lisachan plotted an entire story with these people (and more), but I didn't have the time to write that this time around, so I wrote this, which is a little thingy I used to get acquainted with characters that had been only in my head so far. When we will come around to write _that_ story, things might be a little different.
> 
> Written for: Lande di Fandom's COW-T 8  
> Prompt: woods

Mal is nervously pacing up and down the parlor of this sadly ancient palace, which is not the place he would have chosen for a rendezvous. “Would you mind telling me again what I'm doing here?” He asks, crossing his arms over his chest and finally stopping, right in front of the run-down portrait of some good king or other. They all look the same to him.

“We need to talk,” Ben answers. He's wearing some sort of blue regimental jacket, with white pants so tight that just looking in his general direction is probably an offense against the crown.

“Not exactly the words a guy wants to hear,” Mal snorts.

“Not us,” Ben smiles towards him. His blue eyes are a weapon of mass destruction. Mal forces himself to look away. “All our friends.”

“Oh, well, it's settled then. I can go. I don't have any friends.”

He starts marching towards the door, but Ben grabs him by the long black cape he's wearing – damn, he has to rethink this piece of outfit – and pulls him back. Mal stumbles backwards but, luckily, he has perfect balance, so he remains upright. “You do have friends,” Ben smirks in his direction, showing a grill of perfectly white teeth.

Mal might have a vaguely greenish complexion like his mother – which is a nightmare when he's looking for a matching eye shadow, because he doesn't dig her whole green-and-purple style – but he's strongly against the stereotypical image of the ugly, dirty, uneducated villain. Mother has style and so does he. And they both brush their teeth, so Ben is not the only one who have good oral hygiene. Thank you very much, very handsome son of a very disturbing former beast.

“I don't know what you're talking about.” He crosses his arms over his chest again and tries to assume an appropriately indignant pose, but it's hard to do that when all he has to show off when he throws his head back is a pair of stubby little horns. It would be a much more dramatic gesture with proper horns. Mother says he's too young for those, yet.

“I'm talking about Akay,” Ben answers. 

“Akay is not my friend, he's a sidekick. You're supposed to be a hero or something, you should know that,” Mal shakes his head. “Anyway, I really can't stay here. In fact, I should be at home right now, studying transmutation magic. I know you're not familiar with magic, unless is of the if-you-act-like-a-proper-human-being-you-and-all-your-servants-will-be-turned-back-into-yourself kind, but long story short, I have to open a book and learn actual spells, and it takes time.”

“Well, I am your friend, then.”

Mal makes a face. “You're killing me now. Seriously, friends?”

Ben looks at him and smiles. In fact, he never loses his smile, which sometimes is unnerving. Mal doesn't really know if the guy owns that constant internal peace that's typical of the very good people – _I know that what my heart tells me is the truth_ and all that jazz – or if Ben is just plain stupid, and so that smile is only the physical expression of the void behind his eyes. At least, he lets the whole Akay thing go.

“I just really need you here,” he says, softly.

Mal looks at him. No, he glares at him, or at least he tries, but he's still working on the whole angry venomous glance. He manages the angry part, but only sometimes. “That's low,” he mutters, eventually.

“I've learned from the best,” Ben says. Then he shows him a chair. “Come on, sit down. I'm sure the others will be here soon.”

“I'm not staying more than ten minutes,” Mal informs him. “I sneaked out, and you know what she thinks about me sneaking out or sneaking in. She's got a thing against sneaking. I don't know why. Anyway, I've just regained her trust after _your_ last brilliant idea and you know how hard it is to gain her trust. God knows if I love that woman, but she's so touchy sometimes.”

It turns out _the others _– or _all our friends_ – are only two other people. One is Fiore, Rapunzel and Flynn's son. A blonde tiny thing that was literally dying two minutes after he was born and was given a magic flower – it's a family obsession or something – and he can now cure people when he brushes his hair. Like, Mal can't even with him, really. And the other is Princess Arianna, Mal's half-sister, except that she doesn't know that and Mal doesn't like to consider her a sister of any kind at all.__

__Mal had never seen her from this up close before, mostly because he's forbidden to cross the boarder of her future kingdom – King Philip is not exactly father of the year for him. She's got her mother's figure and hair, but they both share Philip's nose and the cut of his eyes. They're just a little harder to see in the sharp features Mal has taken after his mother._ _

__“Welcome! Welcome!” Ben is ready to greet them both and shows them to their seats, which happen to be on either side of Mal. Fiore turns to look at him and gives him a nice, but mostly stupid, smile. He shoulder-length hair is decorated with tiny little flowers. Mal makes a face and shakes his head. “I'm really happy you made it.”_ _

__“Benjamin, dear, you know I'm always interested in what you have to say,” Prince Arianna says, “but couldn't you just send a message or something? Why drag us all the way down here in the middle of nowhere for a meeting?”_ _

__“This is hardly the middle of nowhere,” Mal comments. “We are literally ten minutes on foot from your house. I had to take a two-hours trip.”_ _

__Princess Arianna seems to notice him for the first time and she makes a face, a thing that suddenly makes them look very alike as her indignant face is very similar to his. “And what is _he_ doing here, anyway?” she says, in a very unprincesslike manner. What do they even teach princesses nowadays?_ _

__“He is here because he might help us.”_ _

__“I doubt it,” both Mal and Arianna say and then snort at each other. Fiore, instead, chuckles and pulls a basket of flowers out of nowhere and starts braiding them._ _

__Ben, as per usual, doesn't even flinch. What he does, instead, is grabbing a chair and sitting backwards on it. “So, we have woods problem,” he starts. Mal can't help the high-pitch chuckle that escapes his lips. To his defense, it was a very poor first line. He shuts up, tho, the moment Ben rests his eyes on him, silently asking him for support. “The woods around my kingdom is getting sicker every day and I know the same it's happening elsewhere.”_ _

__“It's true,” Fiore nods with emphasis. “Most of the trees are withering and the ivy around mom's old tower is all dead now. Such a pity! It was a nice ivy.”_ _

__“Well, we are having the same problem too,” Princess Arianna says. “The glade where my mom grew up with the fairies doesn't exist anymore, it has been dying for month. But honestly we thought it was his mother's fault, Maleficent.”_ _

__“Well, that's offensive,” Mal comments. “First of all, not everything that is evil in your kingdom is Mother's fault. Your hairdo, for example. Second, she has much better things to do than destroy Queen Aurora's favorite piece of grass. Third, would you mind telling me what would be the purpose of destroying hundreds of acres of greenery in the course of _months_? Like, the most ineffective and energy-draining spell in history! Seriously! And last but not least, there are woods around our house, and those are dying too, so no, my mother has nothing to do with it. Maybe it's your gardener!”_ _

__“Guys, I don't think it's Maleficent's fault,” Ben intervenes before the argument can escalate. “This is not her style at all, anyway. In fact this is exactly why I called you, because I think there is something else at work here.”_ _

__“Something else like what?” Mal asks._ _

__“That is what I'm trying to find out,” Ben nods. “According to my mother, who has studied several books on the argument, it seems some kind of magic.”_ _

__“Luckily she's beautiful, isn't she?” Mal sighs. If he had to pick a princess – for whatever reason – Belle would be in his top five. She's smart, she's tough and, somehow, she trained and married a huge dog and nobody batted an eye, but sometimes the fact that she needs a book to understand anything is discouraging._ _

__“I don't think I understand,” Fiore blinks._ _

__“Do you ever?” Mal sighs again. Then, he stands up and he's happy when Princess Arianna does the same but it doesn't change much because he's way taller than her. “Look, it can be active magic, but I honestly find it very unlikely. Or it can be passive magic.”_ _

__“Wait a moment,” Princess Arianna complains. “Why is he being consulted on the matter? He is a villain!”_ _

__“Well, he's technically the son of one,” Ben explains, “which doesn't automatically make him one. He might be a villain in the future but who knows?”_ _

__“I am a villain,” Mal protests._ _

__“Not now, Mal.”_ _

__“Alright.”_ _

__Princess Arianna looks at the two of them, frowning. She seems to study them and then she shakes his head. “Alright, let's say he's not a villain, still why is he being consulted on the matter?”_ _

__“Uh. Oh, I don't know, maybe because my mother is _the_ most powerful fairy around here and literally a freaking dragon? Or maybe because she cursed your mother and put her to sleep for a fuckton of years? Oh, wait, maybe it's because she actually surrounded your castle with _thorns_ which are, you know, natural magic? Pick one!”_ _

__“Yes, _your mother_ did all this! Not you!” Princess Arianna says, hands on her hips. “So, once again, why are we consulting _you_?”_ _

__“Would you rather speak with her?” Mal asks, already knowing the answer._ _

__“Absolutely not!”_ _

__“Right, he's her nicer pocket-size version,” Ben concludes, preventing Mal from complaining by putting his hand on his mouth. “He's being educated by Maleficent, so he knows this stuff.”_ _

__“Thank you,” Mal nods, and then glares at Arianna. “Speaking of which, why are you two here, instead? It seems to me that I'm the only one who has at least a vague idea of what might be going on in the woods.”_ _

__“Well, I have three fairy godmothers,” Princess Arianna replies. “And they are teaching me a little bit of magic.”_ _

__Fiore smiles at them, showing his half-made crown. “I like flowers.”_ _

__Mal closes his eyes and count to ten, trying to find the internal peace that allows him to live among idiots without committing murder. “Right, how could I miss the usefulness of a flower-loving artist like yourself,” he says._ _

__“You were talking about two kinds of magic,” Ben resumes their conversation. “What are they?”_ _

__“Oh, it's easy really. Active magic is the end result of an act of magic,” Mal explains. He claps his hands once and when he shows the others his open palms there is a tiny flame on either of them. Fiore lets out an enthusiastic cry. “See? I used a spell and I created fire. But every time you use magic to create, destroy or modify something, you disturb the elements and trigger a chain reaction, which affects your surrounding. So, for example, if I was to set fire to this room, we would probably have a strong wind somewhere nearby. That wind would be passive magic, namely the consequences of a totally unrelated action.”_ _

__“Why do you say that this sickness that is killing our woods can't be active magic?” Ben asks again._ _

__“Well, first of all because it's extensive and it's happening in several places at the same time,” Mal explains. “These kind of rotting spells are topical, which means that are done on a specific place, and they are energy-consuming. To have several spells destroying two or more different woods so systematically, this enemy should have an amount of power that honestly I don't want to take into consideration. Secondly, this thing has been going on for weeks. Nobody has this kind of stamina. You can be as powerful as you want but at some point you need to sleep.”_ _

__“But if you think this is passive magic and passive magic is proportionate to the unrelated action that triggered it,” Arianna comments, “it means that someone somewhere is still casting some powerful spell.”_ _

__“Several someones,” Mal nods. “I don't think we're talking only one person. Unless...”_ _

__“Mh?” Ben says encouragingly._ _

__“Do you know how you have to balance salt and sugar when you cook?” Mal says, quite cryptically._ _

__Ben makes a face. “I'm not much of a cook.”_ _

__“I bake cakes,” Fiore says, nodding. At this point he's not making a simple flower crown anymore. It's a rope of braided flowers, long enough to strangle all the people present. “If you put a pinch of salt in your dough, your cake will be more tasty.”_ _

__“Exactly!” Mal nods, honestly surprised that Fiore got anything at all. Maybe he's less stupid than he thought he was. King Eugene is not _that bad_ as far as good kings go after all. “So our world is balanced in the same way. There's a lot of good, yes. But without a pinch of evilness...”_ _

__“The world is less tasty,” Ben nods, quite serious._ _

__Mal covers his own face with a hand and tries to find enough strength not to kill everyone. “Yeah, something like that,” he says eventually. “You need two different parts to have balance.”_ _

__“And lately they're rounding up evildoers,” Princess Arianna intervenes, finally catching up. “Queen Grimhilde, Jafar and Captain Hook have been incarcerated last week. And I know they are preparing to pick Cruella de Vil up in a couple of days.”_ _

__“About that,” Mal intervenes, raising his finger. “I would like to say that I completely disagree with this policy of incarcerating people randomly only on the basis of the fact that they are classified as evil people. If we all agree that their past actions were dictated by centuries of traditions and couldn't be amended, shouldn't they be treated as any other people in the lands? Mother hasn't cursed a single baby in the past fifteen years. Does it count for nothing? Should I still expect an army of soldiers knocking on our door?”_ _

__“Probably,” Princess Arianna nods. “She did curse my mother...”_ _

__“Did you even listen to a word I just said?”_ _

__Ben clears his throat. “So, what you're saying is that taking evil people out of the picture could cause unbalance which in turn produces the rotting?”_ _

__Mal shrugs. “It's an option, but I should study it more.” He is about to say more when his skin starts to prickle, a shiver shakes him from head to toe and he becomes a little greener than usual._ _

__“What's wrong?” Ben asks, instantly worried._ _

__Mal swallows down a lump of fear. “Diablo is nearby,” he says. “I put a spell on him, so I always know when he's coming closer. I've five minutes before he finds me, and if he does, I'll have to grow wings to beat him to my mother.”_ _

__“Can you do that?” Ben asks, and Mal doesn't know if he's more interested or more disgusted._ _

__“No, I can't turn into anything yet. Okay, maybe something, but I'm not telling you what,” he babbles, as he grabs his stuff around the room. “Listen, I'm gonna check this thing out, okay? I have to go.”_ _

__“Mal, wait a second!” Ben tries to stop him, but not even his handsome face can stop him from going home. Diablo only moves to his mother's orders. And if she sent her pet raven out to find him, it means she knows he's not home. He's basically already grounded for the next hundred years._ _

__“I have to go,” he repeats, and in the heat of the moment, he grabs Ben by his shirt and quickly kisses him on his lips. “I'll send you a message or something.”_ _

__Mal storms out, slamming the door behind him. For a very long moment – say several long minutes – there's only silence in the room. Princess Arianna is grinning at him, Fiore is staring at him with big rounded eyes, Ben is staring at the floor, which is not very interesting but presents the less amount of embarrassment at the moment._ _

__“Do we keep on talking about the woods or we are allowed to ask about your wood?” Princess Arianna says, violating all the rules on proper princess behavior._ _

__Ben turns red. “This meeting is adjourned,” he hisses, walking – no, running – out the room between Arianna's laughter and Fiore's puzzled questions._ _

**Author's Note:**

> In our mind, Princess Arianna is way more sassy than annoying, and she's actually very sweet with Mal as we wanted to go as far as possible from the image of the delicate, jealous, good-for-nothing, girl-to-rescue, type of princess. But I strongly needed a comedy partner for Mal and Fiore just wasn't the right one. She will be different in the proper story (or in other stories, I don't know). You have seen a glimpse of her true self in her last line.


End file.
